Israel’s Sin
12 [a]“Ephraim feeds on the wind,
chasing after the eastern winds,
storing up lies and desolation day after day.
They are making a contract with the Assyrians,
and sending oil to Egypt.
2 The Lord accuses Judah,
and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
he will repay him for what he does.
3 He circumvented his brother[b] in the womb,
and as an adult he fought with God.
4 He even fought the angel and won;
he cried and prayed to him.
Then at Bethel he found him,
and there he spoke with us—
5 the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies—
the Lord is his name.[c]
6 So you, return to your God;
guard grace and justice,
and look to your God always.
7 “Now as for the merchant,[d]
deceitful balances remain in his hand,
and he loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim claims,
‘I have become rich,
I have made a fortune!
Because of all my wealth,
no one will find any iniquity or sin in me.’
9 “Yet I remain the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
I will make you live in tents again,
as in the festival of that name.[e]
10 I spoke to the prophets,
giving revelation after revelation,
and employing parables in the prophetic writings.[f]
11 “There’s iniquity in Gilead, isn’t there?
They have become truly vain.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;
their altars are like piles of stone in furrowed fields.
12 Jacob fled into the land of Aram;[g]
Israel served there to obtain his wife,
tending sheep to gain[h] his wife.
13 “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,
and by a prophet he[i] was rescued.
14 Ephraim has stirred up violent anger;
therefore the guilt of his blood will remain on him,
and his Lord will repay him for his contempt.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 12:1 This v. is 12:2 in MT, and so throughout the chapter.
- Hosea 12:3 Lit. He grabbed his brother by the heal
- Hosea 12:5 Or his traditional name
- Hosea 12:7 MT word for merchant sounds like Canaan
- Hosea 12:9 I.e. the Festival of Tents
- Hosea 12:10 Lit. parables by the hand of the prophets
- Hosea 12:12 I.e. Syria
- Hosea 12:12 The Heb. lacks to gain
- Hosea 12:13 I.e. Israel